1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular charging and generating system, particularly to a vehicular charging and generating system driven by an engine for generating electricity.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a conventional vehicular charging and generating system, rotational force of an engine is transmitted to a rotor via a belt, a rotating field coil is rotated and a rotating magnetic field is generated. Further, three phase alternating current voltage generated at an armature coil by. the rotating magnetic field is rectified by a full wave rectifier and by the rectified output voltage, a battery is charged at the constant voltage.
Hence, according to the conventional vehicular charging and generating system, for example, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H9-710, it is known that when the generator is brought into a state of stopping to generate electricity by some cause, for example the generator is brought into the state of stopping to generate electricity since the field coil is disconnected, an Driver is informed thereof by issuing alarm.
However, according to the conventional vehicular charging and generating system, when a portion of a plurality of rectifying elements of the full wave rectifier is failed, since the generator can generate electricity, alarm is not issued and the driver cannot be informed of the abnormality of the generator.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular charging and generating system capable of alarming a driver even when a failure is caused in a rectifying apparatus of the vehicular charging and generating system.
(1) In order to achieve the above-described object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicular charging and generating system having a full wave rectifier for rectifying alternating current output voltage of an armature coil for outputting alternating current voltage to direct current voltage, the vehicular charging and generating system comprising failure detecting means for detecting a failure of a rectifying element constituting the rectifier, wherein an alarm is issued when the failure of the rectifying element is detected by the failure detecting means.
By such constitution, even when the failure is caused in the rectifying apparatus, the alarm can be issued to the driver.
(2) In the above-described (1), preferably, the failure detecting means detects the failure of the rectifying element by comparing generated voltage of the vehicular charging generator and average voltage of phase voltage of the armature coil.
(3) In the above-described (2), preferably, there are further provided generated voltage detecting means for detecting the generated voltage of the vehicular charging generator, and average phase voltage detecting means for detecting the average voltage of the phase voltage of the armature coil, wherein the failure voltage detecting means issues an alarm when a difference between output voltage of the generator voltage detecting means and output voltage of the average phase voltage detecting means is higher than first difference voltage set when the failure is not caused in the rectifying element or when the difference is lower than second difference voltage set when the failure is not caused in the rectifying element.
(4) In the above-described (3), preferably, there is provided delaying means for issuing the alarm after a set time period when the difference output voltage exceeds the first or the second set difference voltage.
(5) In the above-described (3), preferably, there is provided rotational number detecting means for alarming the failure when a rotational number of the generator is equal to or larger than a set rotational number.